[sethwas]

So I tried an experiment.

I adjusted the balance to the left and right to try to move the forward L/R imaging around and with the new tweets in the sail panels its audible to hear it move somewhat. Before it just made one side of the car louder, but did nothing to the soundstage.

But here's the thing, when I sit in the back seat and put my head between the headrests, with the balance at '0' equal left and right the image is outstanding. Tight in center, and deep/wide soundstage.

As soon as I move my body back to the driver seat it sort of goes to mush.

I understand this is because the speakers are different distances from my ears, and more importantly, one is super close and the other is not.

What do people do to fix this? I know the capability is there, but it's a processing issue. The system isn't designed for an off center listener. It's almost like I should reconnect my center and disconnect the one in the passenger door just so the speakers are mostly equal distance apart.

Seth

[MarcoZandrini]

first, left-right adjustments are called balance. Fader refers to fore/aft adjustments. I would try to use the fader to move the sound stage forward.

[sethwas]

Thanks, there is no rear soundstage/speakers/sound - only the front door speakers.

I'll edit the text to clarify.

Seth

[sethwas]

just for some closure - I was able to figure it out with some pro-sound people.

It's a 'flaw' of the car. (flaw is in quotes because it's true for every car nothing special for this one).

The left speaker, particularly the tweeter in the sail panel, is right by your left wrist - literally just a few inches to the left of your left ear - but the right speaker is over an arms length away.

The issue is (and this is corrected in home theater by the processing) the sound reaches your head at different times.

Because the car distances are so short to your ears, it's very subtle, and most people leave it alone, but its not possible to make a good stereo image unless the left speaker by your left hand is delayed a few milliseconds so that it's sound and the sound from the other door reach your head at the same time.
That isn't possible on the factory amp or HU. You can set different volume levels to sort of 'shift' the image left and right, but you can't actually get it to lock properly.
(you can test how it 'would' sound properly by simply putting your head over the center arm rest so it's equidistant from the left and right doors, it's worlds different).

One way to fix would be to just move the passenger speaker over, and that's a non starter. Some might want to try putting the center channel back and using that as the right speaker and disconnect the passenger door altogether. I'm not going to try that.
Fixing in programming works but of course makes only the drivers seat the 'sweet spot' so the image will be off for everyone else, but that probably is ok because the others aren't so finicky. Programming would also flatten the wierd house curve that's going on with the factory amp since it's pushing so much high frequency to compensate for the paper cones that were there in the past. (which means it may even be able to filter out some hiss).

Seth